Aurora Rising book review

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Series: The Aurora Cycle #1
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on May 7, 2019
Pages: 473
Goodreads

From the internationally bestselling authors of THE ILLUMINAE FILES comes an epic new science fiction adventure.
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…
A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasmA sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmatesA smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulderAn alien warrior with anger management issuesA tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering
And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

I am a huge fan of The Illuminae Files, and they are definitely some of my favourite books ever. So when I heard that there was going to be a new book AKA Aurora Rising coming out I jumped straight onto the bandwagon and I’m so glad I did. This book was such a wonderfully well-paced read with some really amazingly diverse characters that all felt so natural that I wanted to be best friends with all of them, they all had such distinct personalities. I will say that within this one the relationships were a little fuzzy and fast for the time frame that it was set in. I am currently reading the second one and that doesn’t seem to be as bigger of an issue now.

I loved each and every one of the characters in Aurora Rising, I enjoyed reading about them as a collective and then also as individuals. I definitely think they had their own flair however I did find myself forgetting who was talking at certain points which were a little annoying, I think I would have preferred fewer POVs and to focus on fewer characters, or have more time with them all so their voices were fully fleshed out. I think my favourite character was definitely Zila or Kali, they were both pretty amazing and I loved learning about them as people and what drove them. My least favourite character controversially would have to be Aurora, god she was annoying, tbh I was all with Cat when she wanted to throw her out of the spaceship. However I do think this book perfectly captured the awkwardness that came from having a load of new people shoved into close quarters together.

The best bit of Aurora Rising was the mythology and how well paced this book was. There was always something happening but without it becoming angsty or overrun. I found that I couldn’t put it down and I was invested enough in the characters and the story that I really needed to know what was going to happen. I really loved as well the way that the book was formatted, and how the information was presented in handy little fact files. It reminded me of The Illuminae Files and how that book is a mixture of different media and files. I will say, with no spoilers, that the ending was phenomenal, I loved the way it was done and I thought it was the perfect ending to lead onto the next book.

For me, unfortunately, the romance in this book just moved a little too quickly for me. There wasn’t enough development and it seemed to skip forward a lot, it was as though the actual amount of time this was all happening had been forgotten and it felt as though the romance should have been building for months rather than days.

I would completely recommend Aurora Rising, I have already started the sequel because it had me that enthralled. It was such a great book, with really fantastic characters, and I can’t wait to see where they all end up!

Were you a fan of this series? What about The Illuminae Files? Let me know in the comments!